The Mirabal sisters are fighters, especially Patria,
Minerva, and Maria Teresa, who, along with their husbands, join the resistance
to Trujillo, murderous dictator of the Dominican Republic from the 1930s until
1961. A fourth sister, Dede, who was not
as involved in the mission to end Trujillo’s reign, stayed home the day her
sisters were assassinated on their way home from visiting their husbands in
prison. The author blends fact and fiction to construct a novel that looks back
on the lives of the four sisters, with each of the chapters focused on one of
them. As the only survivor, Dede’s
chapters dominate, but her rather mundane personal story does not. The
backstories of the other sisters are not all that thrilling, either, and I was
never clear on what motivated them to risk their lives in opposition to
Trujillo. This novel has merit as a
history lesson, but I am not a fan of this type of semi-biographical fiction,
as the author seems to be constrained by what actually happened. I have found the same to be true of novels by
T.C. Boyle, Alice Hoffman, Zadie Smith and Maggie O’Farrell in which they are
fictionalizing the lives of historical figures. However, I generally love these authors’
novels that spring strictly from their imaginations. I think that Ariel Lawhon does a better job
than most with writing an engrossing novel about a real person. Perhaps she just chooses subjects whose lives
are good fodder for a novel and are obscure enough to allow for some thrilling
embellishments.
No comments:
Post a Comment